The next big regulatory battle will be… in the clouds
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate the licensing and use practices of cloud computing’s two main players, Amazon and Microsoft, which have been accused of abusing their dominant position.
The move threatens the two companies that are driving one of the most important transitions in the history of computing by offering their customers potentially lower costs than managing their own data centers and, at the same time, the peace of mind provided by the fact that hardware management problems are solved by a third party.
Due to the global nature of their business, technology companies were the first to consider the need for cloud computing architectures, but customers initially needed convincing that the value proposition of the cloud not only made sense, it also provided greater security. Peace of mind and scalability, values many customers have yet to grasp. The leading providers of this transition became the so-called hyperscalers, owners of huge infrastructures distributed around the world, an evolution of traditional data centers which ensured the possibility of a scaled architecture as the demands on the system continuously increased.
